How Students with different levels of Design Experience use PLEX Cards within the Brainstorming Process

Design cards are gaining popularity as a way to represent and disseminate design knowledge. Simultaneously, related research has not yet examined how intended users experience their use. This paper evaluates how designers with different levels of experience use and experience the PLEX Cards. Following a mixed-methods research approach, we compare how junior and senior design students use and experience these cards. Participants in our study experienced the PLEX Cards through a brainstorm session. Our study (N=25) shows that these cards offer structure, different perspectives, and help start the design process; junior students used the cards as intended and, experienced the design cards more positively than their experienced colleagues, who adapted the intended method of the card set to fit their way of working. Our findings support the expectation that design cards are more suited for introducing designers to unfamiliar design topics and can be a useful material for design education.